Robert Lynn Carl
Marriages
Elinor Marie Bailer - 1946
Obituaries
Steamboat Today - February 11, 2012
Robert Lynn Carl passed away Jan. 27, 2012, of natural causes at the great age of 91. He is survived by his two sons, Dana Carl, of Steamboat Springs, and Gregg Robert, of Martinez, Calif.
Bob met Elinor Marie Bailer in 1943 in a clerical office in San Diego while serving in the Navy during World War II. Three years later, the war was over, and they were honorably discharged from the Navy. The couple was married in 1946 and was together for 37 years before Elinor’s passing in 1983. Bob never remarried.
Bob was a man who was able to live out his dreams. He loved to write and was a huge movie fan. In 1941, he graduated from Woodbury College in Hollywood, Calif., with degrees in journalism and business. After the war, he returned to school to receive degrees in business administration and secretarial science.
He became a ghost writer for Hollywood gossip personality Hedda Hopper in the late 1930s through 1946. In 1955, he and his partner wrote the pilot and first five episodes to the Warner Bros. TV series “Colt .45” staring Wade Preston. He also worked for the Bill Schiffren Hollywood movie agency and met and worked with Hollywood stars including Bette Davis, Robert Stack and Charlton Heston, to name just a few. He truly was a Hollywood legend in his own right, a dream fulfilled.
In 1957, the family left Hollywood and moved to Santa Ana, Calif., where they opened a toy store, which they operated through 1963.
It clearly was fun to have parents who owned a toy store. We were some of the first kids to own the Slip ’N Slide, hula hoop and skateboards. Another dream fulfilled.
In the mid-1970s, Bob and Elinor moved to Murrieta Hot Springs, Calif., and retired. He remained a writer. Everyone who knew Bob came to love him for his good-natured, funny and playful personality. People called him “Good Ol’ Bob.”
In 2004, Bob moved to Steamboat to live near Dana Carl because he loved living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. There he became known as SOB (“Sweet Ol’ Bob”) to the ladies. A catch phrase he always said was “good deal.” Everything that happened to him was a “good deal.”
Bob was a gentle and giving man who provided his family with love, understanding and guidance. He was a father who you wanted to measure up to and be like.
Good Ol’ Bob will be missed here. When you reach heaven, they soon will be calling you Good Ol’ Bob, and you will have just two words to say: “good deal.”
Our father sent this message to us a few years back:
“There is a place that I must fill, and no one else can fill. Something I am to do, which no one else can do! I can control any situation if I first control myself.”
Well said.
Your sons,
Gregg Robert and Dana Carl
